GREEN BAY, Wis. — Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy may have made their kicking decision even more difficult.

Rookie free agent Zach Ramirez came in for a tryout Sunday and performed so well that the Packers signed him. Then he hit all but one of 11 field-goal attempts in practice and was instantly thrust into the kicking fray with incumbent Mason Crosby and first-year kicker Giorgio Tavecchio, who have been going at it since training camp opened.

Before this season, the Packers had not had a second kicker in camp since 2007, when Crosby was drafted.

“We had three kickers (on) the practice field today; I think that illustrates how exactly we feel about the kicking position,” McCarthy said after practice Sunday. “There’s a job available, and someone needs to jump through the door and take it. That hasn’t happened yet.”

If the Packers expected the clouds to part in a three-way kick-off they saved for the end of practice, they were mistaken. With crowd noise pumped in from giant speakers, the kickers rotated through 11 spots on the field, ranging from 34 to 63 yards and both hash marks.

A strong tailwind carried the ball 5 to 10 yards longer than normal, all three kickers said.

The results were:

Crosby: 10 of 11, missing only from 53 yards, to the left.

Tavecchio: 9 of 11, missing from 45 yards, to the left, and 63 yards, to the right.

Ramirez: 10 of 11, missing only from 53 yards, to the left.

For Ramirez, it was a remarkable performance given he had already been through a pressure-filled tryout several hours earlier and had never kicked at Nitschke Field. His leg strength was apparent when he drove a kickoff all the way to the fence on the north end, about 10-15 yards behind the back of the end zone.

“I think everybody feels a little nervousness, but I think once you hit your first ball it goes away and it’s just back to what you do,” Ramirez said. “You just focus. I kind of lose sight of everything else around me and just kick the ball.”

The main reason Ramirez was added to the mix was Crosby’s performance in practice Wednesday when he missed 3 of 4 attempts. Missing several in a row has been a common theme for Crosby, who hit a career-low 63.6% last year.

Three times this camp, Crosby has missed three straight field-goal attempts during a drill and when he did it for the third time, the Packers called Ramirez early Thursday morning and asked him to come in for a tryout.

Ramirez had hit only 4 of 7 field goals during his senior season at Portland State after an opposing player crashed into him on his very first conversion attempt, resulting in a torn ligament in his kicking leg. He returned later in the season but wasn’t the same player.

In fact, through most of the off-season he wasn’t 100%, and other than a tryout during Seattle’s three-day rookie orientation camp, he had been ignored in NFL circles. So he continued to kick on his own, eventually spending time at one of kicking guru Chris Sailer’s college camps while hoping to get a call.

Sailer had worked with Ramirez since the kicker’s freshman year in college and said Ramirez had one of the strongest kicking legs he had seen coming out of college. He said Ramirez kicks comfortably at the 60-yard-plus range.

A YouTube video of Ramirez kicking 60-yard after 60-yard field-goal attempt with a kicking holder on a practice field and then later hitting three straight attempts from 65 and one from 70.

As a junior, Ramirez, who went by the name Zach Brown at Portland State, hit 24 of 27 field-goal attempts and was named first-team all-Big Sky Conference. He has hit six of the 10 longest field goals in Portland State history, the longest 53 yards (twice).

“I’ve spoken to every NFL team about Zach,” Sailer said. “He’s a wild card really, but worth a shot. He could be that good.”

Ramirez said he wasn’t sure he was going to be signed, but he was confident enough to pack four shirts and four pairs of pants in case he made it through the week. McCarthy didn’t guarantee that he would carry three kickers into the final exhibition game against Kansas City Thursday night, but he didn’t rule it out.

What the Packers have to find out is how well Ramirez performs in front of 70,000 people, which is approximately how many will be stuffed into Candlestick Park in San Francisco on Sept. 8. Going with Ramirez over the experienced Crosby and the very consistent Tavecchio would be a major risk.

Crosby bounced back from the Thursday practice by hitting from 38 yards Friday night against Seattle and being near perfect during the Sunday practice. Just about every kick he made was hit with authority, including the 63-yarder, which would have been good from 73.

“Those two long ones there at the end I felt real smooth, and I felt like they just came off my foot exactly how I wanted,” Crosby said. “Those are the types of hits that I want to see and I think everybody wants to see every time.”

Crosby shook off concerns about his job being in jeopardy with the Ramirez signing and said, though he was surprised by the move, he had to make sure he continued to hit the ball like he did Sunday.

Tavecchio continued with his routinely consistent performance. He has not missed two in a row all camp and his hit 86.4% of his field-goal attempts this summer compared with Crosby’s 80%.

He doesn’t have the same leg strength as Crosby and Ramirez, but it’s hard to argue with his numbers. Having another kicker in camp, Tavecchio said, isn’t a worry.

“All that stuff is out of my control,” he said. “I feel like I’m locking in more and more. I felt like I had a good experience in the game finding that safe place, and that’s one thing I wanted to work on this week. Really lock in, give it a good go in Kansas City if I get the chance.”

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